According to the Daily Mail today:

An Iranian kick-boxer was hanged for the assassination of a Tehran nuclear scientist after WikiLeaks published a confidential U.S. Embassy cable, it has been claimed.

Majid Jamali Fashi, 24, was yesterday put to death at Tehran’s Evin Prison following his conviction of killing Massoud Ali-Mohammadi allegedly on behalf of Israel’s intelligence service Mossad.

Experts believe the unauthorised publication of the U.S. Embassy document, from Baku in Azerbaijan where Fashi had taken part in a tournament, ‘could have raised Iranian suspicions’.

The Jerusalem Post reports that it was the Times that broke this story yesterday:

Though Wikileaks redacted the source’s name before releasing the cable penned by an intelligence operative in Baku, Azerbeijan, it published the description of the source as “a licensed martial arts coach and trainer.” According to the Times, Fashi, a professional kick-boxer, had visited Azerbaijan for a kick-boxing tournament days before the cable was sent.

How Was Majid Jamali Fashi Betrayed is a post from: No More Pencils

Required reading Rethinking Our Approach to Iran’s Search for the Bomb

To begin, it is essential to understand that Iran has moved far beyond the point where it lacked the technology base to produce nuclear weapons, or where searching through the statements of senior Iranian officials provides any meaningful picture of its progress and intentions. Iran has pursued every major area of nuclear weapons development, has carried out programs that have already given it every component of a weapon except fissile material, and there is strong evidence that it has carried out programs to integrate a nuclear warhead on to its missiles.

The bio for the author is here: Anthony H. Cordesman

Iran And The Bomb is a post from: No More Pencils

I Don’t Know Why This Made Me So Sad – I Guess I Care About It.

I just read that yesterday the Iranian authorities hanged a man they accused of working for Israel in the assassination of Tehran University physics professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi in January 2010.

I have no idea whether the man – Majid Jamali Fashi – was guilty of what he is accused of, and if so, what his motivation was. But it makes me very sad and I can only think of him waiting with the noose around his neck.

I don’t think similarly of the man who was assassinated – not if he was working on a program to build a bomb for a country with a declared intent of wiping Israel off the map.

Iran hangs alleged Israeli agent in shadow war

As for Majid Jamali Fashi, it was reported in this article in Haaretz on March 31st, this year that:

According to Time Magazine, Iranian intelligence already cracked a cell trained and equipped by the Mossad. Western intelligence confirmed that the detailed confession of Majid Jamali Fashid over the January 2010 assassination by motorcycle bomb of nuclear scientist Massoud Ali Mohmmadi was genuine, and blamed a third country for exposing the cell.

Majid Jamali Fashi is a post from: No More Pencils

I remember my physics teacher at high school saying once that physics never answers why but only how.

At an obvious, conversational level it answers why, but a few moments’ thought will make it clear that he was right and that physics or any investigation into the physical universe only ever looks at how.

There cannot be any ultimate why answered by an investigation of the physical universe. And if we reduce human beings to physical entities with no other dimension, then it’s the same for us too.

But we exist in our minds as well as in our brains and our bodies, and for us it is always a question of why more than how.

How And Why is a post from: No More Pencils

Mozart’s Sister (Nannerl, la soeur de Mozart) a film by René Féret

A Brief Synopsis

Wolfgang and his older sister Maria Anna (nicknamed Nannerl) are touring Europe with their parents on a rigorous schedule to play before the greats of Europe.

When the story begins, Wolfgang is eleven and Nannerl is sixteen.

The family is close but the father is focused on making a name for the child prodigy Wolfgang.

Nannerl is the accompanist, but never the centre of attention – never recognised for her talent at composition or her talent on the violin.

In the eyes of her father, composition is above the sensibilities of a woman and the violin is not a proper instrument for a woman. Instead she must sing to accompany Wolfgang and play the harpsichord to accompany Wolfgang.

But then everything changes when an axle breaks on their carriage and they stop at an abbey. There Nannerl meets Princess Sophie who with two of her sisters has been cloistered in the abbey at the command of their father, Louis XV.

Nannerl and Sophie become close friends and from that friendship and a favour that Sophie asks of her, Nannerl meets Louis, Dauphin of France.

He is just sixteen and is mourning the death of his wife Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain who died three days after giving birth to their daughter.

See the film Mozart’s Sister to find out how it plays out. It is enchanting and well worth seeing.

See The Film But Know Your History

The problem was that I knew that the French Revolution would lead to the beheading of Louis XVI – so as I watched the film, I was wondering whether that was the fate that awaited the Dauphin in the future.

In fact, Louis Dauphin of France died of consumption at Fontainebleau in 1765 at the age of 36. So he was outlived by his father Louis XV and so he never became king.

Instead it was his eledest son by Maria Joseph of Saxony who became Louis XVI.

In fact, not only did Louis Dauphin’s eldest son become the ill-fated king Louis XVI, but two more of his sons – Louis XVIII and Charles X – became king in their turn.

Children of Louis XV

• Louise Élisabeth, Duchess of Parma
• Princess Henriette
• Princess Louise
• Louis, Dauphin of France
• Philippe, Duke of Anjou
• Princess Marie Adélaïde
• Princess Victoire
• Princess Sophie
• Princess Thérèse
• Louise Marie, Abbess of Saint Denis

Children of Louis, Dauphin of France

• Louis XVI
• Louis XVIII
• Charles X
• Marie Clothilde, Queen of Sardinia
• Princess Élisabeth

Mozart’s Sister – An Historical Perspective On The Film is a post from: No More Pencils